Naomi Pomeroy is a twenty-year veteran chef, owner of acclaimed restaurant Beast in Portland Oregon, and 2014 winner of a prestigious James Beard Foundation Award. Her debut cookbook, Taste & Technique – Recipes to Elevate Your Home Cooking, was released in September 2016. I was intrigued to check it out, having heard that Ellen Laing, daughter of local Orchard Hill Farm owners Ken and Martha Laing, had worked along-side Naomi in preparing dishes for all of the photographs in the book. |
Taste & Technique has large, earthy, beautiful photos for each delicious-sounding dish, a classical layout of contents from sauces to desserts and pastry, and a seasonal sensibility. Although other cookbooks may boast some of these same merits, the instructional narrative woven into each recipe is unique. Naomi has created an enticing roadmap for going beyond the basics and is an encouraging and enthusiastic guide for the journey. If you have thought about adding some new layers of knowledge and taste to your cooking in the coming year, this would be an inspiring place to start.
Naomi fell in love with cooking during college when she worked at a catering company. When she started her own catering business, she learned to cook by reading and cooking and went on to learn more through owning several restaurants and working with many talented chefs. Naomi notes that early on, “The more I cooked, the more I realized that great food starts with a handful of great building blocks.” Each of the main recipes focuses on learning a specific cooking method. All provide plenty of guidance for a less experienced home cook along with variations and inspirations to explore as confidence builds. Throughout the book, Naomi returns to the importance of thinking seasonally, creating balance within a dish and within a meal, enjoying the process, cooking with attention and not worrying about perfection. With her descriptions of recipe origins, fine-tuning, inspirations, influences, and shortcuts to avoid, it seems like she is an ever close-at-hand mentor and cheerleader for your success (and happiness) in the kitchen. |
Naomi’s descriptions of how to do things are vivid, visual, detailed – they are intended to get you thinking and moving like a professional chef. For example, on making aioli she suggests: ``Work on a low surface (think kitchen table instead of the countertop – your arm will thank you later) and ready your mise en place before you start whisking. A stiff whisk will slow you down, while a flexible balloon whisk will get the job done in a few minutes. A squeeze bottle is ideal for adding the oil to the yolk slowly and carefully. If you don’t have one, put the oil into a flexible plastic container – a takeout container or a leftover yogurt tub will do – so you can easily bend it into a little spout that will allow you to control the flow of the oil as you whisk.”
She speaks of one early influence, Morgan Brownlow, who “taught me the importance of seasonality … Morgan also taught me how to move in the kitchen … Even when hurried, he was still calm and focused. That’s when I began to realize that cooking is a dance, and knowing this has had an enormous impact on the way I carry myself at work to this day.”
If you are interested in refining and adding enjoyment to your own kitchen dance, Naomi will make an encouraging and inspiring instructor. Here's her recipe for Kale with Quick-Pickled Apple, Gruyère Crisps, & Creamy Dijon Vinaigrette.
She speaks of one early influence, Morgan Brownlow, who “taught me the importance of seasonality … Morgan also taught me how to move in the kitchen … Even when hurried, he was still calm and focused. That’s when I began to realize that cooking is a dance, and knowing this has had an enormous impact on the way I carry myself at work to this day.”
If you are interested in refining and adding enjoyment to your own kitchen dance, Naomi will make an encouraging and inspiring instructor. Here's her recipe for Kale with Quick-Pickled Apple, Gruyère Crisps, & Creamy Dijon Vinaigrette.
Photographs by Chris Court © 2016